Need some guidance about the non-academic aspects of UWC please ...

[tictoc]

We are considering enrolling our kids in UWC, perhaps in the East Tampines campus if places are not available at Dover. We would like to understand a few non-academic aspects of the UWC system and would appreciate any feedback:

1. How approachable are the teachers and the principal? Of course, there would be the periodic parent-teacher meetings, but how easy is it to meet teachers at other times?

2. Is there any bullying, whether directly or in the form of cyber-bullying?

3. How prevalent is Facebook and any troubles that may arise from using Facebook?

4. Any problem with drugs?

5. How are the ethos of the school? In other words, how strong is the stress on values, virtues, good behaviour, etc?

6. How active is the Parent-Teacher Association? Do parents feel involved in the school life?

7. Is UWC run like a factory (which nevertheless produces good results), or does the system draw out the best in each child?

8. UWC does not have the Middle Years Program (MYP), which offers an interdisciplinary study of the various subjects through units of enquiry and a global outlook. It offers the IGCSE instead, which is perhaps a traditional study of each subject on its own. Do you feel that this is a shortcoming?

9. We know that children can bring their own laptops, but how integrated is the use of information technology in the learning process?

I know these are long questions, but thanks for all the answers.

[parent/teacher]

1. How approachable are the teachers and the principal? Of course, there would be the periodic parent-teacher meetings, but how easy is it to meet teachers at other times?
Never had a problem setting up a parent teacher meeting at any time of the year.  Every teacher we have come across has been very open to this.


2. Is there any bullying, whether directly or in the form of cyber-bullying?
Yes there is bullying.  Every school has to deal with this.  I think the school has got a bit better with dealing with it but I think it is very teacher specific.  Not sure if it is worse or better than at any other school

3. How prevalent is Facebook and any troubles that may arise from using Facebook?
My daughter's grade has a problem with this earlier this year.  It was handled very well by the school and all parents received an email outlining exactly what had been going on.  It seems to have been resolved, for now anyway.

4. Any problem with drugs?
No idea - never heard of any although have heard rumours about problems in the past.  I expect there are drugs at all international schools here.

5. How are the ethos of the school? In other words, how strong is the stress on values, virtues, good behaviour, etc?
Very strong - but I'm not sure that all the children embrace it.  It's a shame when they don't but you can't force children to be caring global citizens if their parents don't give a damn or if they've decided they want to be rebellious teenagers.  For those that are open to it, there is  a tremendous opportunity to really be a force for good.  I don't think there are any serious behaviour problems in the classes - I think that is reserved for weekends 

6. How active is the Parent-Teacher Association? Do parents feel involved in the school life?
Seems fairly active - although I'm not involved so don't really know.  We always seem to be getting emails / flyers from them with various events advertised

7. Is UWC run like a factory (which nevertheless produces good results), or does the system draw out the best in each child?
I don't think it's a factory.  It has drawn out the best in two of my three children but one just wasn't interested.  Not necessarily the best school for every child.

8. UWC does not have the Middle Years Program (MYP), which offers an interdisciplinary study of the various subjects through units of enquiry and a global outlook. It offers the IGCSE instead, which is perhaps a traditional study of each subject on its own. Do you feel that this is a shortcoming?No I think it is an advantage. I'm a teacher who has taught MYP so I know all about it's short comings and would never put my child in an MYP school

9. We know that children can bring their own laptops, but how integrated is the use of information technology in the learning process?
No idea - which I suspect means they don't use them much, but could be wrong on this

I know these are long questions, but thanks for all the answers.

[Gingerbread]

Last year, 30 kids(out of 200+) from grade 10 were asked to leave the school due to poor academic result. One parent said some of these kids have bad attitude also. They couldn't continue IB diploma. No idea where they go. Heard of good things about IGCSE.

[statistics]

Last year, 30 kids(out of 200+) from grade 10 were asked to leave the school due to poor academic result. One parent said some of these kids have bad attitude also. They couldn't continue IB diploma. No idea where they go. Heard of good things about IGCSE.

The number was 11, not 30

[Alinz]

Re the drug question - when my kids went to UWC we had to sign up to say they would take random drug tests (no signature, no school place), and the kids commented that they knew there would be tests especially after school holidays.  4 years contact with kids in IB and I'm not aware of any drug problem at all, but certainly heard about it in other schools.

[Young ones there]

I should preface my answers by saying that we only have children in G2 and below, so have not reached MYP (and hopefully drug problem) stage yet.  We currently have 2 school age children and have experience of 3 teachers.  Many of your questions are clearly directed at parents of older children.  Hope this helps.

1How approachable are the teachers and the principal? Of course, there would be the periodic parent-teacher meetings, but how easy is it to meet teachers at other times?[/font][/color]
Apart from the scheduled conferences and reports, we have found the teachers and principal very approachable.  With two of the teachers, responses to emails have been so immediate that you have have a live online conversation if you happen to catch them before or after school.  With the third teacher, you'd usually get a reply within the day.  They have all been very amenable to face to face meeting about particular concerns.  I've never had to meet the Principal formally because I ask him any questions that we have whenever I bump into him around the school.  I should add that I drop off and collect my children from school every day so have plenty of opportunity to keep in touch.

2. Is there any bullying, whether directly or in the form of cyber-bullying?
We've not become aware of any bullying of any form but the teachers seem to be extremely aware of the relationships between the children in their classes, who are the dominant personalities etc.  Obviously there are some children with 'socialisation issues'.  I can only speak for the experience of our children and cannot imagine that there are absolutely no bullying problems, especially as the children get older.

3. How prevalent is Facebook and any troubles that may arise from using Facebook?
Again, perhaps because ours are young, we have not come across Facebook at school.  Moshi Monsters seems to be as far as they have progressed so far.

4. Any problem with drugs?
Not in our expereinec but cannot imagine that any international school is completely drug free at senior level.

5. How are the ethos of the school? In other words, how strong is the stress on values, virtues, good behaviour, etc?
Absolutely, there is a huge focus on the holistic development of the students.  Children are rewarded for exhibiting 'core values', both by peers and teachers.  This has been one of the most impressive aspects of the school for our children.  We have found that it plays to each of their very different strengths, building their confidence etc.

6. How active is the Parent-Teacher Association? Do parents feel involved in the school life?
The PA at the East Campus was only established a few months ago but is gaining momentum fast.  We tend not to get involved with the PA as there are so many class events and so many ways to contribute very directly to your own child's class as a parent.  The level of involvement varies from class to class and teacher to teacher, but typically parents can help out at swimming, school trips, reading, group work, yearbooks, organising parties etc.  This is clearly not compulsory and in our experience, perhaps 25% of parents are actively involved with another 25% participating as and when work allows and about 50% taking a more back seat role.  In a nutshell, you can be as involved as you/your child wish.

7. Is UWC run like a factory (which nevertheless produces good results), or does the system draw out the best in each child?
Absolutely not run as a factory as far as we have been concerned.  Compared to the other 2 international school that our children have attended, there is much more focus on the individual than we have come to expect.

8. UWC does not have the Middle Years Program (MYP), which offers an interdisciplinary study of the various subjects through units of enquiry and a global outlook. It offers the IGCSE instead, which is perhaps a traditional study of each subject on its own. Do you feel that this is a shortcoming?
We asked about this before filling out the application forms and are convinced by the school's rationale that the IGCSE gives more structure and better preparation for the IB Diploma than the MYP.

9. We know that children can bring their own laptops, but how integrated is the use of information technology in the learning process?
I did not even know that they could bring their own laptops.  Ours don't have them yet.  IT has not stood out in any way.  I know that they children do a lot of homework online, prepare reports, play with basics like Word etc., but beyond that I must confess that I have not paid a whole lot of attention to IT. 

[drugs and schools]

As others, I'd imagine there are some.

The only one I'd heard special mention of was sas and that was a few years back.

[tictoc]

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback.  It is very helpful.

[tictoc]

One more question for parent/teacher though: Why do you feel that MYP has significant shortcomings? I would just like to know your thoughts. Thanks

[parent/teacher]

One more question for parent/teacher though: Why do you feel that MYP has significant shortcomings? I would just like to know your thoughts. Thanks

The schools write the curriculum and there are no final exams - very different from the IB.  If a school runs the programme alongside IGCSE then the curriculum will be rigorous enough to provide a thorough grounding. If not - you're at the mercy of the teacher who has devised the curriculum.  My experience has been that teachers who are not used to exam driven curricula just don't feel the same pressure to write and teach a rigorous curriculum.  (I'm talking about secondary schools here, not primary)  Not a very good grounding for the IB

[Middle Years at UWC]

Curriculum is written by the school at UWC as well for the middle school. IGCSE takes over only in Grades 9 and 10.

[funny]

thought there would be more parnts explaining the points mentioned here. or have all the uwc lovers left town

[parent/teacher]

Curriculum is written by the school at UWC as well for the middle school. IGCSE takes over only in Grades 9 and 10.

That is true - but they are preparing them for IGCSE.  In science they follow the UK curriculum - using UK text books.  Maths seems to be the same.  They are heading towards an exam at the end of Grade 10 so the curriculum is geared towards preparing them for that.  It's not just plucked out of nowhere.  I'm not saying all MYP is bad - you're just at the mercy of the teachers at the school.  The teachers may be good or bad at writing curricula.  There is no exam at the end of Grade 10 to gauge whether they've learnt anything.  Americans may be comfortable with this as it's the same in the US. 

[to pp]

UWC makes it very clear when you enroll your children in Middle School that progress into the IB programme is not automatic, but depends on academic achievments as well as on attitude.
As a parent whose daughter did IB a few years ago I must say it is maybe harsh on the unsuccessful student but it is fair. The IB is hard enough for reasonable students so if they are not able to cope with it they look at potential failure at the end of 2 years. Unlike A-levels it is difficult to resit subjects and all six subjects have to be passed at a reasonable level or you fail the diploma as a whole. Often the school allows weaker students with a positive attitude to do the IB but I know from families in that situation that those two years can be very taxing. On the other hand, students who are academically competent but show a bad attitude ) can have a detrimental effecton the whole class and are therefore sometimes not offered a place.
As far as drugs are concerned, my son and some friends were "randomly"  tested for drugs in Grade 10 and again 6 months later--both times negative, thank goodness. We later found out that one of the students in his group had been seen at Clarke Quay with the wrong crowd and it was supposed to be a warning to them all. It worked better than parents lecturing about the consequences.

[drugtesting]

Drug testing is carried out frequently at UWC - kids know about it, does not seem to bother them .
Hopefully cos they are not taking them. But to suggest it stops them hitting Clarke Quay is wishful thinking . Last term in Grade 9 is when this usually starts, not all but quite a number.